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When I had finally closed the Esperance Club I met the late St. George Heath who was the Warden of the newly opened branch of Toynbee Hall at Poplar. He asked me if I would come to Poplar and help in the Settlement work.

I said I would if I could find somewhere to life there. Eventually he found me a most beautiful house on the Isle of Dogs and I left the flat in which I had lived so many years and set out on a new experience. I was charmed with my new home.

It was in a very poor street and with one or two exceptions, was the only good house in that street. It had panelled rooms, beautiful mantelpieces and a quite wonderful staircase. At the back, there was a little paved garden with a flower bed in the middle, a vine on one side and a very large fig tree on the other. But the great attraction was the river, which at high tide flowed right up to the garden wall. All the shipping of the world went by and from a wooden balcony at the back I could have spoken to those on board. One afternoon I saw the “Broke” go by, returning from battle. The men had chalked on her side: “Broke but not stoney”

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